7 Warm Winter Menus

Menu #1: Old-fashioned pot roast dinner

Four root vegetables combine with a tender, herbed pot roast to make a hearty, old-fashioned meal. Finish with a slice of Chocolate Mocha Gooey Butter Cake -- topped with vanilla ice cream, if you're in the mood for even more indulgence.

Cranberry Cashew Salad

Sliced apples, roasted cashews and dried fruit combine with mango chutney, spinach leaves and curry for an exotic, fresh-tasting salad. The recipe comes from the New Albany (Ohio) Cooking with Friends community cookbook.

Double Chocolate-Cherry Cookies

Carol Schneider of Wausau, Wisconsin, brought home a blue ribbon when she entered these cookies at the Wisconsin State Fair some years ago. The recipe combines white and semisweet chocolate with dried cherries and walnuts.

Menu #3: Slow cooker pork dinner

The Cranberry Pork Roast slow-cooker recipe comes from Carolyn Sinclair of Grey Eagle, Minnesota. "When I serve it, I almost always have to give out the recipe," she says. "The tangy gravy is a good complement to pork."

Tip: A slow cooker works most efficiently when it's half- to three-fourths full. That's because the heat comes from coils around the sides of the pot, rather than the bottom. When using a recipe, make sure it's sized for your cooker.

Menu #4: Bacon lover's menu

Bacon's irresistible scent warms up the kitchen on cold winter nights. Stir salty-smoky crumbled bacon into our cheesy potato soup and sprinkle some more on top. Serve the soup alone or with one of our Easy Bacon Sandwiches. Nibble on tangy lemon bars for dessert.

Tip: Cut down on splattering by placing slices on a microwave-safe rack or a plate lined with microwave-safe paper towels. Microwave on high (2-3 minutes for 2 slices, 3-4 1/2 minutes for 4, and 4-5 minutes for 6 slices), rearranging bacon once.

Luscious Lemon Bars

Menu #5: Quick-and-easy salad dinner

Sunflower seeds and dried berries give a burst of flavor to an easy main-dish salad that starts with rotisserie chicken. Heat up purchased refrigerated breadsticks in your oven, and serve a quick-fix chocolate mousse for dessert.

Menu #6: One-skillet supper

Create a quick-and-easy dinner with Simple Salsa Skillet, a recipe from a Westchester, Illinois, reader. "My mom and I love this recipe because it's easy, doesn't cost much to make and is low in fat," she says. "It's the perfect main dish for a cold Chicago night."

Menu #7: Steak dinner

We took an old favorite, steak with mushroom sauce, and boosted its flavor and colors with caramelized sweet onions, a medley of mushrooms, dried tomatoes and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Add simple sides and a from-scratch pie.

Fantasy Chocolate Pie

Dream about all the ingredients you'd like to see in a dessert, and you'll see why we named this Fantasy Chocolate Pie. It's made with three kinds of chocolate pieces (milk chocolate, semisweet and semisweet-and-white-chocolate swirled)—plus coconut, pecans and almonds. Top with whipped cream and chocolate curls.